When it all gets a bit whiggity-whack, and i don’t feel quite grounded…or even tethered, i check in with my simple-living checklist:

• are we resting enough
• are we active enough
• are we warm enough
• are we getting enough fresh-air
• are we being well-nourished
• are we drinking enough water
• are we adventuring enough
• are we creating enough
• are we learning enough
• are we grateful enough
• are we loving and let loving enough

and on the days that i’m smarter about it, i check in on a personal level. those are all the things i want in my life. i’m in charge of making sure we never orinever lose sight of that.

our life out here is true to our wedding vow on many levels.

it gets unbalanced sometimes. one category gets neglected for justatouchtoolong. and i notice. i can only go for so long. i can only label the way i plate-our-dinners as my creative endeavor of the day for so many daysinarow.  my ranch chores cannot bear the sole weight of my need for physical activity.

due to my life-long affliction of consistent inconsistency, rather than keep it alltogetherallofthetime, i spike. i pick creative endeavors over my head and physical feats beyond my reach, and i jump in.

life with these little homies of mine provides me with all the right opportunities to get myself inovermyhead, and try to swim to the top. the bunkbed monkey bars, the snow forts, the seasonal decorations, the holiday t-shirts, and Halloween.

Squawk has a humor that i adore. his ideas for Halloween are both hilarious and difficult to pull off.  Three years ago, he went as No-Noggins. his head peaked through the belly of his shirt.  people knew who he was. he was proud. i was proud.

and since then i’ve been failing him. but not from lack of effort. last year he wanted to be a dump truck. i spent the better part of a week constructing a dump truck that involved the Chariot, the ski harness attachment, and lotsandlots of cardboard. it was cool. in the end it just was not practical. neither to transport nor to be in a crowd of people. he went as an astronaut. a costume in his box that he wears all the time.

this year he wants to be a light bulb. i’ve been working on it all week. although it has gone through much refinement in the R&D process, i don’t think i can pull it off. we discussed it this morning in a lovelump on the couch. Crit and DW have a tendency to be nay-sayers, they were never supportive enough to be involved. Squawk said he’d start thinking of other ideas. he’ll probably go as Flash. the costume that is in his box that he wears all the time.

i am keenly aware of the fleeting moment of Halloween and the impermanence of my efforts. i’m drawn to creative pursuits like that from timetotime. i love a good project that requires a round-up of resources and a flexible plan. once, in Jackson, i won a month’s worth of free curb-side recycling as a winning prize at the Snow King Halloween Ball. It was 1999, and i was an upside-down alien. i had to keep my arms over my head all night. it was worth it. a Halloween in Boulder, i went to a warehouse party as Fuseball back-row defense. i was a blue fuse ball guy attached by a 3ft pole to my friend who looked just like me. we basically had to stay put in the middle of the room. but, of course, we didn’t. it was obnoxious.

I’m glad that he comes up with such peculiar ideas. i’m glad that it is something we work on together. i’m glad that he can let go once he sees it not quite working out. we’ve got pumpkin carving coming up this weekend and he has already drawn his rough draft on the chalkboard. part of his wisdom is the ability to see the bigger picture and the forest through the trees.

After this seasonal blast in creating, i’ll be happy when i go back to designing mosaics on our dinner plates. root vegetables are a great color pallet.